48
" Wat had hij steeds te kijken? Waarnaar? Er is niks na de dood. Je gaat dood, klaar, je wordt begraven. Als je leeft, ook al ben je niet gelukkig, kun je door de frisse lucht lopen, in je tuintje. Als de geest verdwijnt, ben je weg, dan word je aarde. Geest is geest en de rest is aarde. Aarde, meer niet. De een sterft in de wieg, de ander haalt grijze haren. Gelukkige mensen willen niet dood. Niet als ze iemand hebben die van hen houdt. Dan willen ze er nog een jaartje bij. Maar waar zijn er gelukkige mensen? "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
53
" My daughter married a Italian. His name is Sergio. When they come stay with me, he and I have our kitchen dialogues... in Russian...We'll talk until morning. Sergio thinks that Russians love to suffer, that that's the trick of the Russian soul. For us, suffering is '' a personal struggle,'' '' the path for salvation''. Italians aren't like that, they don't want to suffer. They love life, they believe is given to them to enjoy. Like...my daughter and Sergio will come home from the supermarket, and he'll be carrying the grocery bags. In the evening, she can play piano while he makes dinner. For me it was nothing like that: he'd try to take the bags from me, and I'd grab them away ''I'll do it. You shouldn't''. He'd come into the kitchen and I'd tell him, '' this isn't your place''. "
― Svetlana Alexievich , Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets